Greggs warn of further price increases as Ukraine war raises ingredient costs

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Greggs has warned it could be forced to increase the price of its products amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ongoing conflict threatens to increase the cost of raw ingredients, while transportation costs are set to go up due to the rising price of fuel, the Mirror reports.

Officials at the high street bakery chain were initially betting a price rise of five per cent this year - but it is feared the war in Ukraine could hit the firm's bottom line even further.

Earlier this year, we reported Greggs would increase the price of its beloved sausage rolls by 5p. At the time, a spokesperson for the firm told Bloomberg: “Ingredients and labour costs have been rising and Greggs is not immune from that.”Greggs chief executive Roger Whiteside said that the bakery could not rule out further price rises.He said: “Food ingredients are getting more expensive, and energy is getting more expensive than it was looking like then."He added: "All the proteins, all the cereals, all the oils - everything's going up in price.“As ever, we will work to mitigate the impact of this on customers."However, given this dynamic, we do not currently expect material profit progression in the year ahead.“We'll keep things under review as the market develops.”Greggs has tended to keep price hikes to a minimum due to its reputation of being excellent value for money.But Whiteside conceded that their hand may be forced in the future.He added: “I'm never going to give a promise that it will always be like that because there's uncertainty in the outlook."So depending on how the market reacts you might see that we want to protect prices at one end of the market where we can see competition is more intense, but move prices up more aggressively in other